Paeonia lactiflora Command Performance

The Command Performance Peony (Paeonia x lactiflora) is a Chinese or herbaceous Peony that offers vibrant, fragrant, long-lasting flowering. It is a recent variety that blooms early, producing a large number of ruffled, highly double flowers that can reach 20 cm (8in) in diameter. Starting out as a beautiful cardinal red, they turn carmine pink when mature. The unexpected colour and shape of its flowers make this peony a truly unusual and unique variety. 

Chinese herbaceous peonies are mainly derived from Paeonia lactiflora, a perennial herbaceous plant native to central and eastern Asia (from eastern Tibet and northern China to eastern Siberia), where it naturally grows in woods and meadows. This plant belongs to the Ranunculaceae or Paeoniaceae family. Herbaceous peonies, perennial by virtue of their roots, form a clump of foliage that completely disappears in winter.

The Command Performance Peony was obtained by Donald Hollingsworth in Missouri (United States) in 1996. It is the result of hybridisation between a lactiflora (an unnamed anemone) and the Good Cheer variety (officinalis x lobata). It won the "Grand Champion" award in 1998 at the American Peony Society, a major peony exhibition in the USA. The plant forms a bushy herbaceous clump from spring onwards, moderately dense, reaching 90 cm (35in) in all directions. Its large flowers, highly double, appear quite early, in May-June depending on the climate, for about three weeks. They bloom at the end of the stems, but also from a few secondary buds. They emerge as a large red bud and then open into a very double and dense pompom, with intense red tousled petals, without stamens. The young, purple and shiny foliage unfolds into large, dark green, deeply cut leaves. They are carried on a petiole that divides into 3, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate segments. The leaflets are entire or sometimes lobed. The vegetation disappears in winter, while the buds persist at ground level and develop in spring. This long-lived perennial plant grows from a large fleshy root that does not like to be disturbed.

Chinese peonies are among those plants that form the basis of a garden. The Command Performance peony can be planted in flowerbeds or alongside pathways, combined with timeless and unpretentious perennials such as Bearded Irises, Columbines, Perennial Geraniums, carnations, or Christmas Roses. It can also be grown in the vegetable garden to supply cut flowers for the house. Only pot cultivation is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time, the peony becomes majestic and blooms more abundantly, producing up to 60 flowers. By combining different varieties with staggered flowering, it is possible to have flowers for 6 weeks from spring to early summer.